


The Club

by Kass



Category: due South
Genre: Aurora - Freeform, DS_Flashfiction, M/M, Naked Without Sex challenge, Sauna, post-cotw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-07
Updated: 2009-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-02 05:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kass/pseuds/Kass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...And tonight should be cold enough," Fraser finished, like he was serious. "I haven't been in years, naturally, but David tells me the tradition is still going strong. Would you like to go?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Club

**Author's Note:**

> For the Naked Without Sex challenge at DS_Flashfiction.

  
"...And tonight should be cold enough," Fraser finished, like he was serious. "I haven't been in years, naturally, but David tells me the tradition is still going strong. Would you like to go?"

I stared at him. "Fraser, you have to be fucking kidding me."

He shook his head and gave a half-shrug. "I assure you, it's quite commonplace. And you've been saying you'd like to feel more a part of the local 'scene'..."

"This is some kind of crazy Canadian thing." Despite myself, I was grinning, because honestly? It sounded too nuts to be true, and I should've known that meant it was true.

"Actually, it may be Russian in origin."

"Figures," I muttered.

"It's practiced by many Scandinavians, Finns of course, some Swedes...and even by Americans, especially scientists and technicians wintering over at McMurdo or South Pole station."

I let my head fall back onto the top of the couch and stared at the ceiling of the cabin. I'd moved to Canada with a fucking lunatic. For some reason, that seemed funny, so I said it out loud. "I've moved to Canada with a fucking lunatic."

"Understood." I could hear Fraser smiling; he knew I wasn't really complaining. "Is that a 'yes,' then?"

"God help me," I sat up with a groan. "Yeah, okay."

And that was how I wound up sitting on the cedar bench in Mac's sauna along with Fraser, Mac, Billy Corker, and an Inuit guy named Luke. The sauna was fantastic: it felt like it was about a zillion degrees (Fraser said it was more like 175, Fahrenheit), and every time Mac poured water over the stones the place filled up with steam and it felt ten times hotter.

We talked about stupid stuff -- who was going to play hockey this weekend, what new movie rentals were coming to the place in town, shit like that. I mostly melted and enjoyed the heat.

Also, part of my brain was working hard on not paying attention to how good Fraser looked with sweat rolling down his belly, because I did not want to get an erection in a sauna full of big burly guys. Even if they all knew about us and they were cool with it, I still didn't want to embarrass myself. So I just closed my eyes and let my head loll back against the wooden wall, and breathed the hot air as deep as I could, and promised myself I'd nail Fraser to the mattress when we got home, if I survived this thing.

And then I heard somebody stand up. When I opened my eyes, they were all standing up, heads almost hitting the low ceiling. "Ready to go?" Fraser asked.

I shook my head, but I got up anyway. "Two hundred club, here I come."

We went out the door to the anteroom and tugged on our shoes, because as crazy as this was, going out barefoot was actually dangerous. Slipping on the ice could lead to falling down, and falling down -- well, let's just say landing on the ice could lead to frostbite in places I didn't want to think about.

And then Mac opened the door and we ran outside, whooping and yelling. I was so hot I didn't even feel the air at first.

The sky was huge, and scattered all over with stars. Somehow it seemed bigger when you were standing outside naked in the dark. The aurora swirled green and pink all around. Fraser and Mac and Billy and Luke looked like ghosts, the steam rising from their bodies making little clouds around them. I lifted up one hand and watched the steam float up from my skin. There were more stars out than I had ever, ever imagined could exist. It was incredible.

And then the cold banged into my forehead like a frying pan, and I shouted, and I ran back to the shed, and one by one we all piled back inside, hopped on one foot to yank our boots back off, and sighed with relief when the sauna door closed behind us and we were back in the heat again.

We were all grinning like madmen. Billy clapped me on the shoulder with his cold hand, Mac poured another dipper of water on the rocks, and Fraser said, "Welcome to the club, Ray."

And I had to admit, it felt good.


End file.
